A Sticky Back Door in Salisbury and a Fast Rescue Before the School Run
Last week, I got a call from a family in Bishopdown. The mum said something like, "It's not really an emergency right now, but it will be at 8:10 tomorrow morning when I'm trying to get the kids to school."
Fair enough—anyone who has had to run to Salisbury School knows that there isn't enough room for stuck doors when you're going down London Road at peak time.
The issue
Their back door had been getting harder and harder to open; you almost had to push it with your shoulder. A classic early warning sign, but like most of us, they put up with it until it went from "quirky door" to "why won't this open?"
When I got there, I could see that the handle was lifting higher than it should have, and the key felt like it was fighting back. Cold weather, a door that drops a little, and a lock that has been used a lot all add up to trouble.
What I did was:
- Checked the alignment (the door had dropped a little bit)
- Released the mechanism and took out the old cylinder
- Put in a British Standard lock that can't be broken
- Rearranged the keeps so that everything was perfectly lined up.
It felt smoother right away, as if the door had remembered how to behave. They tried it out, smiled, and said: "I can't believe how long we fought over that!"
It's very common for Salisbury homes, especially Bishopdown and Laverstock, to move and shift a little over time.
A message for people who own homes in Salisbury
If you find yourself pulling on the handle harder or sometimes the key needs to be pushed, it's usually not because the lock is "old." It's in queue. And if you leave it too long, the lock could fail completely at the worst possible time, which is usually when you're running late.
Do you need help in Salisbury?
If a door isn't working right, I can usually apply a fix it quickly no matter where you are: Old Sarum, Harnham, Bishopdown, or right in town.
Call Locksmith Salisbury at 01722 730034.
Not part of a call centre, and run by veterans in the area. Just honest, professional help and a real fix the first time!